The village of Hanavave

20 April 2008 | Fatu Hiva ( Marqueses)

Nathalie

Our stay at Fatu Hiva was memorable and we will remember the welcome and kindness of the Hanavave villagers for a long long time. We traded a lot of pamplemousses, bananas, papayas for tee-shirt, pens and stickers with the kids. I got a beautiful basket carved from wood by a local artist Tahaki who came on our boat with his family. Any cruisers who have a few fenders and floating line can really trade with the men of the village for some beautiful tiki and wood carving items. An interesting thing which I have noticed is that although Marquesiens are very generous , they are very particular when it comes to trading: for example , when I traded my wood basket with Tahaki, I did not have any fenders to spare, so David offered him several items that he expressed interest in : snorkel, mask, flippers, sunglasses and shakles, I added to it a beautiful bead necklace (the one I make) as a present for his wife Marie-Iris. She ask me if I could do another necklace in mauve in exchange of a wood tiki that Tahaki will make and I was delighted but I realized the next day that Tahaki was not really for it. So keep in mind, when you want a tapa, deal with the women (jewelry, perfumes) and when you want anything wood carved, deal with the man (anything to do with boat or tools) but do not mix, it does not work. We although had a surprising and wonderful festivity happening during our stay: The school put up a show for the departure of the school district controller ( a French lady who was tin the Marqueses since six years and was going back to France). The whole village including the cruisers were invited to the event and the next day at 8:30am we were all there, what a treat! We saw the kids dancing and singing in marquesian, French, even in english (the oldest), it was absolutely fantastic! Then we had a small buffet with local fruits and foods. The same day, in the evening, we organized a musical encounters between villagers and cruisers at the dock and spent several hours listening to their guitars and songs, they are so talented. We brought cake and other goodies and it was quiet a success. David, Steve from Orca III and Gilles from Cholgas spent two days fixing miscellaneous things in the village from a car, to a generator, a fridge, a weed eater, and the police man of he island told us that we were welcome back anytime! You can see that it was very hard to leave...
Notre sejour a Hanavave, la generosite et la gentillesse des habitants et des enfants du village restera dans nos memoires a tout jamais. Nous echangions des fruits (pamplemousses, bananes, papayes) contre des stylos, des tee-shirts et des autocollants/tattoo. Les enfants etaient toujours avec nous, surtout puisque nous parlions francais et je me suis fait trois amis, Jean-Pierre, un petit garcon tres degourdi et tellement gentil, Edwige qui est tombee amoureuse de mes bagues swarowski, et Catherine tres calme avec un sourire a faire craquer le diable lui-meme, elle n'entendait pas tres bien mais lit sur les levres parfaitement. Je me suis attachée a ces enfants en quelques jours et nous avons eu la chance d'assister a un evenement particulier qui a ete un enchantement; En effet l'ecole fetait le depart de l'inspectrice de toutes les Marquises qui repartait en metropole après 6 ans de poste, la pauvre, le retour va etre tres dure! Donc l'ecole du village organisait une fete ou tout le village, y compris les cruisers etaient convies. Quelle belle fete, les couronnes de fleurs, les danses, les costumes traditionnels, les chants, tout y etait! Edwige m'a offert son collier de fleurs a la fin de la fete, Catherine m'a invite a danser, cela a ete un moment incroyable!
Le meme soir, nous avons organize une rencontre musicale Marquesiens-cruisers sur le quai, il pleuvait mais les marquesiens etaient au rendez-vous abrites sous les rochers, nous sommes donc tous arrives avec les gateaux (C'etait l'aniversaire de Steve sur Orca III) les boissons et nous avons fait la java marquisienne (encore les guitares et les chants)!!! C'etait super. Pendant deux jours, David, Steve de Orca III et Gilles de Cholgas ont repares des tas de truc dans le village, du generateur du policier, a la voiture d'une dame, a un frigo et meme un coupeur d'herbes, ils etaient remercies avec des fruits et ont ete contents de travailler ensemble et de pouvoir apporter un peu de leur connaissance au village qui nous a si gentiment acueilli. Le policier nous a dit que l'on etait les bienvenus a tout moment, cela nous a fait tres plaisir. Vous voyez qu'il a ete tres difficile de partir....

Our first catamaran was a Manta 42. She was built in St Petersburg and we went to pick her up in November 2000.
We spent every summer cruising the Beautiful Bahamas islands (700) from the busy Nassau harbor (We never stay more than 2 or 3 days)to the more remote islands like the crooked islands or the ragged islands (also known as the Jumentos and the friendliest of all , Long Island. We never got tired of the turquoise waters , the kindness of the Bahamians and all the fun we had with all the friends we made over the years.